A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an orthodontic device.
B. Description of Related Art
A conventional orthodontic device 70 includes a bracket having a horizontal groove 72 into which a wire 80 is inserted and a vertical groove 73 formed in the front part thereof and a thin-plate-like slide member 71 inserted in the vertical groove 73 (see FIGS. 11 and 12 and the Patent Document 1). The slide member 71 can move vertically along the vertical groove 73, and the slide member 71 is moved downwardly to close the horizontal groove 72, thereby holding the wire 80 therein.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Publication No. 3512466 B.
However, the slide member 71 is a thin plate and therefore is inferior in strength. In addition, most of the front surface of the slide member 71 is exposed, and therefore, the slide member 71 is likely to be subjected to an external force and can be damaged when subjected to the external force.
In addition, the slide member 71 has a shallow recess 74 formed in the back surface thereof, the bracket has a short protrusion 75 formed on the front surface thereof, and the recess 74 and the protrusion 75 are lightly engaged with each other. Therefore, there is a possibility that the slide member 71 is disengaged from and comes off the bracket when the slide member 71 is subjected to an external force. If the slide member 71 comes off the bracket, the wire 80 cannot be held in the bracket.
To minimize the possibility of the slide member 71 coming off, a spring member can be used to keep the slide member 71 engaged with the bracket by the action of the resilient force. However, the spring member incorporated in the bracket extends along the depth, so that the structure is undesirably complicated (see FIG. 18 of the Patent Document 1).